Shoulder Blades
by souperkyoot
Summary: After death, Light finds himself as a death god. With a failing memory and Ryuk as a companion, nothing good can come out of it. Soon to be Ryukcentric
1. Dead

**Shoulder Blades**

Disclaimer: I do not own anything but my thoughts and ideas.

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Light had only briefly wondered about what would happen after his death. Being an atheist, he quickly assumed nothing, oblivion, whatever.

Had he realized that he was to become a shinigami, he might've thought through things a little differently.

He couldn't see his face, but going by the rest of his body, Light was not pleased in the slightest.

When he'd first _woken up_, he looked very much himself, but as time progressed, he could feel his limbs stretching and his body distorting, his skin was very much black, and his bones had stretched painfully in places; sharpening and poking through the skin.

In the first couple of days (there weren't really days or nights, just continual dreariness), Light had worried about Misa or Takada showing up, but seeing as he was a genius, he figured out everything soon enough.

Well, not everything, and it took rather longer that he would've liked.

But nobody was really rushing him, seeing as it was the land of the dead.

Or to be more accurate, the Realm of Death Gods.

He sat on a rock awkwardly, looking himself over. Light had always been a narcissist, and being a death god was disheartening. Thin ridges of bone protruded from his blackened skin, and his organs had shriveled up and leaked through tears in his skin as waste.

When he touched his face, however, he felt the usual bone structure, and he knew his skin had turned pale white from flakes he'd torn off in desperation.

It hadn't even really hurt.

His hair was redder than it had been, and hadn't grown since he'd arrived.

That was because he was dead, he supposed, but his bones and skin and a thousand other things had grown.

Ryuk had explained to him that it was because the form that one took on in the Shinigami Realm was what one's soul looked like.

Ryuk was the only one who fully appreciated the irony of Light's situation.

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**Chapters are all going to be short.**

**I'm estimating five, maybe six. And a sequel if someone steps up and is willing to colaborate with me and give me ideas and such.  
I have no modivation outside of a group D:**


	2. Light

**Shoulder Blades**

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"My head hurts," Light rubbed his temples with elongated fingers.

"Your head always hurts," Ryuk had come to realize that Light as a shinigami was more pathetic and annoying than he'd previously anticipated. Seeing as Ryuk was very much the same he'd been whilst alive, he didn't see why the genius Light would be any different.

Of course there was the fact that Ryuk was not the average shinigami, seeing as he'd tricked the Shinigami King into giving him another notebook and he could still remember things from his life pretty clearly.

And Light had already begun to forget things, and it'd only been three months in human-time. Light had always been too vain, too arrogant for Ryuk's tastes, but when the boy had been alive, all was well because he'd been interesting to talk to and watch.

No Ryuk wished that he could dock the boy's (now fellow shinigami) I.Q. a bit, seeing as the boy had sought him out and found him easily.

That was still while Light Yagami looked like himself.

Light was a more frightening figure than the Shinigami King himself, even if he'd retained some of his good looks. His soul, apparently, was a very ugly thing, but artfully disguised as something better. Ryuk shouldn't have expected anything less from the boy who'd become Kira.

Soon, Light would forget his name, and his shinigami name would be Kira, fittingly, at least that was Ryuk's deduction, and Ryuk was hardly ever wrong.

"If I'm dead how come my head hurts?" Ryuk rolled his eyes and kicked at a shriveled up apple.

"Because you're not really dead, you're a Death God now." Ryuk managed to snicker at Light's ignorance. But, really, the boy should've been able to figure _that _one out. Then he let out another laugh, because Light had aimed to become a god and now he was one. The more that Ryuk thought about it, the more ironic the situation was.

"What?" Light was glaring at him, but it had no effect on Ryuk.

"Hindsight's twenty-twenty, huh?" It was uncharacteristically charitable of Ryuk to be that nice, but he made up for it by flying away, probably to play poker or flip a coin, or talk to the Shinigami King for entertainment.

* * *

In the beginning, Light had often forgotten that Ryuk wasn't _his_ shinigami anymore, and that he was free to do whatever he wanted. To be honest, Light actually missed the other shinigami, with his abrasive manner and unsettling laugh. L hadn't been Light's first friend- it had really been Ryuk.

Now that he had all the time in the world (provided he kept replenishing his lifetime), Light had figured some things out.

Like how childish he'd been, how foolishly he'd acted.

How he overestimated his intelligence, and never really stopped to think about what he was doing. Sure he'd stop to analyze his actions, but it wasn't the same.

Emotions that had been dulled by a lifetime of loneliness had been locked away tightly by the power of the Death Note, and defeat at the hands of Near was the key.

But Ryuk had killed him before he'd had the chance to turn the key.

It was only in death that Light realized a lot of things.

He saw Ryuk in a whole new light, as he discovered that long ago (he thought) Ryuk had been in the same position as himself; misfortune brought by the Death Note, disillusioned by the power that it held within its pages and finding himself a Death God, very much like the one that had lived (or not, really) with him through the trials and tribulations of owning the Death Note.

Of course, Light didn't know that there were other ways to become a Death God.

Once he'd found Ryuk, Light had asked how he could get a Death Note, as it was very clear to him that it was necessary to have one. So Ryuk was _nice_, but only because the boy had served as entertainment for him for years and it was the most fun that Ryuk had ever had as a shinigami. Other than that one time with the King.

Light had a nice long chat with the Shinigami King.

He'd felt a prick of anger when he was told that he would be Kira, but he was too tired to really care.

He'd also met a few of the other shinigami and didn't find them interesting, really.

Ryuk had explained that one to him.

A long time ago there had been more _interesting_ shinigami, and by more it'd been like three or four.

There were never really more than thirty shinigami at one time, and before Light, Misa, and Takada came along, the realm was running a little low, with Gelus' and Rem's deaths.

Light had asked the King what happened to shinigami who died, but he didn't understand what he'd said.

Death had taught Light to be humble, as had defeat. It was more the defeat, however, because in Light's opinion it was worse.

He'd thought about Near being his first victim, but he found that the boy earned his right to live fairly.

His soul was pure; he'd never killed, and he'd pursued justice in it's truest form even though he was younger than Light.

And that's what Light had decided to blame the whole Kira _situation_ on; the idealism of youth.

Being a genius, he knew that it was foolish, but he didn't really care anymore.

"What were you called as a human?" Light asked Ryuk, while they were playing a crude game of checkers.

Ryuk just laughed and shook his head.

Something instinctive told Light that Ryuk was more intelligent than him in more ways than just pure brains.

Light scowled, and recounted as much as he could from his life.

He knew there were pieces missing, but what was missing couldn't be important, right?

As he moved one of his pieces, Light realized that he'd never felt so young.

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**Goldentongue: is this better? Thank you for reviewing so quickly! :D it makes me want to write more!

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**Now, this story is just me and some of my thoughts.  
I know that Light is being ooc, but he's _not_, really. I mean, I don't know what people are like after they've died, but I know that defeat changes people, makes them wiser.  
And Light was defeated several times towards the end and even after death.

Personally Ryuk is my favorite character of the series, and I think he's a lot more intelligent that he gets credit for.  
Whatever. It'd be nice if you guys reviewed or sent me ideas or something. (:

Also, I feel that the defeat has made Light doubt his own intelligence, and everything he knew about himself has crumbled beyond repair, so right now he's in shambles kinda.


	3. First

**Shoulder Blades**

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"Ryuk, what about the others?"

If anything, Light wasn't so much a genius as an annoying kid anymore. Ryuk knew the boy to have immense mental capacities, but since his death he'd seemed a little… slow. As if the game he'd played had ruined his sensibilities.

They hadn't though, merely dulled them.

Maybe if Light played a game with the old man it'd work to wake them up.

And then things wouldn't be so boring, and Light would stop being such an annoying brat.

Ryuk just shrugged; it was a question that Light could figure out on his own.

Light hadn't noticed that when he'd gone to meet the Shinigami King, he'd had a sort of… council. He had noticed, but didn't think anything of it.

Someone did, however.

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Kyosuke Higuchi had been the first Kira that had died, the first Kira to have entered the Shinigami Realm. He'd already forgotten almost everything about his life, almost everything that didn't have to do with him being a shinigami.

When he saw Light's face, however, every muscle in his new body went completely rigid.

When he'd first come to the Shinigami Realm, he'd watched what happened with Kira intently.

"_Kyosuke,"_ the Shinigami King had said to him, _"are you alright?"_ It was after Light had left them, trailing Ryuk like a child.

Higuchi had flashed the king a look, and then looked back at the ground.

He often forgot that the Shinigami King wasn't like all the other shinigami- he'd never been human.

He was soft-spoken but firm, omniscient and omnipotent, at least in all matters regarding his world and his notebooks. Had he been a human he would've been a kindly older gentleman, Higuchi decided.

Except he could be a lot more angry than any sweet old man he'd ever known. Higuchi didn't mind, seeing as he didn't plan on pissing off the man.

He'd done enough subverting authority to last him the next thousand years.

Higuchi had watched everything, ignoring the changes occurring to his own body. He only noticed after he'd become unrecognizable.

"_Hmm,"_ the Shinigami King had said, _"though your actions were selfish, it seems that your soul is not."_

Higuchi just looked at the feathers that had sprouted in a thin line from the side of his pinkies all the way to his shoulderblades, where two sets of wings sprouted. His skin had grayed, and a thick bone plate had grown on his chest.

His eyes were the only thing that remained his own, and in his eyes there was the desperation of someone who knew they'd made a grave mistake.

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"Ryuk, does everyone that use the death note become a shinigami?" Ryuk just looked at Light with boredom leaking out of his ears.

"You're the genius, Light. Figure it out."

"My guess would be yes, as humans who use the death note can neither go to heaven nor hell." Light felt as if that was something he'd known as a human, but after six months as a shinigami, he'd forgotten a lot about his life on earth.

Light picked up an apple and threw it at the ground, watching as it disintegrated into something that wasn't quite sand or rust.

Ryuk clapped his hand together and chuckled condescendingly.

"_Very_ good, Light." The other shinigami just scowled at him. Ryuk had gathered that Light's forgetfulness and slowish attitude was the old man's doing, as the very obvious idea of continuing Kira's work beyond the grave hadn't occurred to Light. Maybe the boy would revert to something like when he'd forgotten all about the death note and pursued Kira avidly, advocating truth and justice and all that mushy crap.

Ryuk knew, or at least hoped, that the King wouldn't be successful in his attempt to make Light mostly harmless.

The most he could do was make him forget his motivations to become Kira, and even then there was nothing he could really do to stop him from doing other things.

After all, it was very clear that Light Yagami's soul was beyond repair, and was something so evil as to make the Shinigami King interfere.

"Hyuk hyuk hyuk," Ryuk's familiar laugh echoed through the empty landscape.

Things wouldn't be too boring after all.

* * *

**Well, well.  
Things are getting a little interesting, huh?  
Even though it's a short story, I'm pretty sure the chapters are going to get longer as there is a plot to the story.  
Not just drabbles. **

**And now I'm 70% sure that there's going to be a sequel, or several even.  
And I'm 100% sure that there's going to have a prequel.**

**Let's see what Light's up to now, huh?  
Next chapter will have more to do with the hierarchy of the Shinigami Realm, I think. And maybe have some Mello.**


	4. Moon

**Shoulder Blades**

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Ryuk left Light, with no intention of really coming back. It really felt as if Ryuk was babysitting Light, and he'd gotten enough of it. It was stupid, really, as the dullish coating the Old Man had seemed to coat the younger Shinigami's brain was starting to stick.

Ryuk went back to his _home_.

His home served a large purpose in Ryuk's after-life. Though Ryuk was oddly charismatic in his own right, and the other Shinigami tended to have a good time in his presence, the time he spent alone was usually the best.

Other Shinigami didn't entertain him much, as the centuries they'd spent in the Shinigami Realm had seemed to dull their personalities. Strangely enough he didn't seem to be affected by whatever it was that was making everyone else annoying and dull.

He looked around at all the contraptions and devices he'd collected in his caverns over time, and picked up a book to read.

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Kira had taken up gambling. It was mind numbingly easy, but it was a way to pass the time. All of the other Shinigami seemed to know him from somewhere, but he didn't seem to dwell on where.

After what seemed like a million years and a half hour all at the same time, Kira had racked up more years than he'd probably need and he started gambling without using his mind.

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The Shinigami King watched his land without rest. The form he took made this easier than if he looked more like his children, so he gathered the sensory information through millions and millions of pores, analyzing and breaking down every shred of data.

He'd figured out that after five human years, it would be safe to release the hold that he held over Light Yagami's mind, but only if done slowly.

The hold he held over Amane Misa's mind could not be let up however, and he'd already sent a message to the other Kings about her.

Once in a while, it happened. Someone who's life had twisted itself and entwined the pure soul into something dark, and came into the Shinigami Realm as one of its inhabitants. Someone like Misa, who did not belong in the Shinigami Realm, and the King felt was a good enough soul to request a transfer.

And if a transfer was not necessary, then he'd advise the pretty girl to let her years run out and return to the human world as a new soul.

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Misa could not remember why she was the way she was. She only remembered the deep love she felt for a man. His face was blurred in her memories, but his eyes burned deeply into her soul. She remembered the light that she bathed in his presence. She remembered the gaping hole he left in her heart in his absence. She remembered that his name was Moon and that together, they had changed the world.

The clearest memory she held of her human life was learning of her lover's death.

She sat, unmoving, unblinking, leaned up against a stark black rock.

Her thoughts were tethered to the man she had loved in life, and loved still, in death.

She felt safe, as long as he was in her thoughts.

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**Sorry for the long absence. New chapter next week. And a decently long one, not crappy and short like this.**

**Just felt that I needed to post something stat.**


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